water like glass placed over white sand
scores of hermit crabs move at your feet
in borrowed shells soon outgrown
smaller crabs grateful of the hand me down
the way of ideas
on the shore shells flattened and uninhabitable
slowly disintegrating replenishing this beach
you wander for hours
looking at dross the dregs
and detritus the sea spits out
avoid the lumps of congealed oil
volatile under your prodding stick
avoid the gaze of mutton bird carcasses
bloated on the high tide mark
avoid their anguished beaks
in the haze the beach becomes a concept
you struggle to make sense of how
water and sky intersect and where
the distance like some unknown future
tapering to an unseen point
sun disorders your senses
that smell of sex and ozone
the way you wish this time would extend
like the best of intimacies
footprints in the sand
steps like a crazy dance
to your ambiguous future